HER. The emperor of Russia was my father: Re-enter Officers, with CLEOMENES and DION. OFFI. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice, That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have Been both at Delphos; and from thence have brought This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd Of great Apollo's priest; and that, since then, Nor read the secrets in't. CLEO. DION, All this we swear. LEON. Break up the seals, and read. OFFI. [Reads.] Hermione is chaste, Polixenes blameless, Camillo a true subject, Leontes a jealous tyrant, his innocent babe truly begotten; and the king shall live without an heir, if that, which is lost, be not found. LORDS. Now blessed be the great Apollo! HER. LEON. Hast thou read truth? Praised! 6 The FLATNESS Of my misery;) That is, how low, how flat I am laid by my calamity. JOHNSON. So, Milton, Paradise Lost, book ii.: 66 - Thus repuls'd, our final hope "Is flat despair." MALONE. 7 Hermione Is CHASTE, &c.] This is almost literally from Greene's novel : "The Oracle. "Suspicion is no proofe ; jealousie is an unequal judge; Bellaria is chaste; Egisthus blameless; Franion a true subject; Pandosto treacherous: his babe innocent; and the king shall dye without an heire, if that which is lost be not found." MALONE. OFFI. As it is here set down. Ay, my lord; even so LEON. There is no truth at all i' the oracle: The sessions shall proceed; this is mere falsehood. Enter a Servant, hastily. What is the business? SERV. My lord the king, the king! Of the queen's speed 8, is gone. LEON. SERV. L How! gone? Is dead. LEON. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE faints.] How now there? PAUL. This news is mortal to the queen:-Look down, And see what death is doing. LEON. Take her hence : Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover.I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion :'Beseech you, tenderly apply to her Some remedies for life. - Apollo, pardon [Exeunt PAULINA and Ladies, with HERM. My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle!- New woo my queen; recall the good Camillo ; * Of the queen's SPEED,] Of the event of the queen's trial: so we still say, he sped well or ill. JOHNSON. But that the good mind of Camillo tardied 9 But that THE GOOD MIND of Camillo tardied My swift command,] Here likewise our author has closely followed Greene: promising not only to shew himself a loyal and a loving husband; but also to reconcile himselfe to Egisthus and Franion; revealing then before them all the cause of their secret flight, and how treacherously he thought to have practised his death, if that the good mind of his cup-bearer had not prevented his purpose." MALONE. I and to the hazard Of all incertainties himself COMMENDED.] In the original copy some word probably of two syllables, was inadvertently omitted in the first of these lines. I believe the word omitted was either doubtful, or fearful. The editor of the second folio endeavoured to cure the defect by reading-certain hazard; the most improper word that could have been chosen. How little attention the alterations made in that copy are entitled to, has been shown in my Preface. Commended is committed. See p. 303. MALONE. I am of a contrary opinion, and therefore retain the emendation of the second folio. Certain hazard, &c. is quite in our author's manner. So, in The Comedy of Errors, Act II. Sc. II. : "Until I know this sure uncertainty." STEEVENS. So many lines equally defective are to be found in Shakspeare, that it is unnecessary to supply any word for the sake of completing the measure. BOSWELL. 2 Does my deeds make the blacker!] This vehement retractation of Leontes, accompanied with the confession of more crimes than he was suspected of, is agreeable to our daily experience of the vicissitudes of violent tempers, and the eruptions of minds oppressed with guilt. JOHNSON. Re-enter PAULINA. PAUL. Woe the while ! O, cut my lace; lest my heart, cracking it, 1 LORD. What fit is this, good lady ? PAUL. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? What wheels? racks ? fires? What flaying? boil ing, In leads, or oils? what old, or newer torture 3 That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing; That did but show thee, of a FOOL, inconstant, And DAMNABLE ungrateful :) I have ventured at a slight alteration here, against the authority of all the copies, and for fool read-soul. It is certainly too gross and blunt in Paulina, though she might impeach the King of fooleries in some of his past actions and conduct, to call him downright a fool. And it is much more pardonable in her to arraign his morals, and the qualities of his mind, than rudely to call him idiot to his face. THEOBALD. 66 - show thee, of a fool." So all the copies. We should read : show thee off, a fool -." i. e. represent thee in thy true colours; a fool, an inconstant, &c. WARBURTON. Poor Mr. Theobald's courtly remark cannot be thought to deserve much notice. Dr. Warburton too might have spared his sagacity, if he had remembered that the present reading, by a mode Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's ho nour, To have him kill a king; poor trespasses, queen, The sweetest, dearest, geance for't Not dropp'd down yet. 1 LORD. creature's dead; and ven The higher powers forbid ! PAUL. I say, she's dead; I'll swear't : if word, nor oath, Prevail not, go and see: if you can bring of speech anciently much used, means only, 'It showed thee first a fool, then inconstant and ungrateful.' JOHNSON. Damnable is here used adverbially. See vol. x. p. 438, n. 7. MALONE. The same construction occurs in the second book of Phaer's version of the Æneid: "When this the yong men heard me speak, of wild they 4 Thou would'st have poison'd good Camillo's honour, How should Paulina know this? No one had charged the King with this crime except himself, while Paulina was absent, attending on Hermione. The poet seems to have forgotten this circumstance. MALONE. 5 though a devil Would have shed water out of fire, ere don't:] i. e. a devil would have shed tears of pity o'er the damned, ere he would have committed such an action. STEEVENS. |